Radiohead In Rainbows download stats made public

Much has been written about Radiohead's 'pay what you want' release of In Rainbows in 2007, but it's taken until today for us to get a better idea of how successful the promotion actually was.

Music Ally claims that Jane Dyball, head of business affairs at Warner Chappell, is set to reveal that the band made more money from the download stunt alone than they did from previous album Hail To The Thief, which was released in a traditional manner.

It's also being reported that Radiohead were monitoring the average price that people were paying for In Rainbows, and were prepared to withdraw the record if this price dropped too low.

It seems that people paid more at the start than later on, the early purchasers being committed Radiohead fans who thought the music was worth more.

What we still don't know, however, is the average price paid for the album over the course of the promotion.

It has been revealed that 100,000 copies of the In Rainbows boxset were sold, though, and we already knew that the physical release of the album went to number one in both the UK and the US.

Taking everything into account, you have to conclude that the In Rainbows model worked for Radiohead, though whether they'll do things in the same way when their next album is released remains in doubt.